Do any ticks burrow under skin?
Expert: Jack DeAngelis – 5/10/2009 Question I have had a lot of exposure to ticks in most of the US, and have seen and removed thousands of ticks from my dogs, myself and others over many years. I have never seen a tick that burrowed under the skin, but recently two people have told me about ticks that burrowed completely into flesh–one on a dog’s muzzle, and one on a human leg. The dog was running very fast through a field of tall grass so that the grass hit against its face very hard, and after the run, the tick was found burrowing into the skin; a vet confirmed that it was under the skin but did not remove it. I don’t know the location. The human was in Florida and said the tick was extremely lively and burrowed fast as he was trying to remove it; he ended up at the ER and had to have a quarter-size piece of flesh removed. I’ve never seen a tick act like this, and suspect these were not ticks, but some other parasite. The only mention of a burrowing tick I can find online is a “ski
